Thursday, December 24, 2009

Living As Strangers And Pilgrims

Francis gave orders that the houses the brothers built should be small, like those of the poor. The brothers should not live as if the house belonged to them, but as strangers and pilgrims in a house which was not their own. It was part of a pilgrim's life, he said, to shelter under another's roof and pass on peacefully, longing for home. On a number of occasions, Francis ordered the brothers to leave a house, or even had it pulled down, if he thought it offended Gospel poverty, either because the brothers claimed the building as their own or because it was too sumptuous.

Saint Francis of Assisi
Bonaventure, Major Life
Chapter VII

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